"But you shall never bring him back with
Prayers and weeping from
The common marsh of death; but in that helpless grief
You waste away, your evils are
Unsolved in these tears.
Why then do you feed your misery?"
--Electra

Chapter Sixteen: Feed Misery

They were splitting everyone up.

Han was dragged off before they even went down into the dungeons. Leia struggled and tried to talk them into letting everyone go, but it was no use. Han was around the corner and gone before she could finish a sentence.

They carted her off next, anyway. As soon as they were in the dark, murky hallways, Leia was being pulled in one direction and Carth another, along with Chewbacca and a dismantled C-3PO.

Carth didn't say a word. He knew no matter was said, they would be separated anyway. And besides, there wasn't much he could do with the blaster digging into his side. As much as he wanted to hit and destroy these Stormtroopers, he simply didn't have the equipment or the chance to do so without getting killed.

Besides, he didn't know where they'd taken Connan. Even if he had been able to get out of the Stormtroopers' clutches, he wouldn't get far until either getting caught or getting lost, and neither of those options was good. He would simply have to hope that their cell would be escapable.

A door was opened and Carth was chunked inside. He slipped on a puddle on the ground and slid the rest of the way inside the cell. Chewbacca was thrown in after him.

A high-pitched, screeching whistle blared through the cell. Carth covered his ears and tried to block it out, but it cut through his concentration and made him cringe. He could hear Chewbacca roaring, and thrashing about in an attempt to block out the sound.

Then it stopped. Carth's ears were still ringing, but the shrill noise was gone. He dropped his hands from his ears and looked around. The dim lighting in the cell made it extremely hard to see, but Carth could make out that they were trapped in a circular room with bars on all the doors to keep from escape.

Chewbacca was saying something to him, but he wouldn't have been able to understand it even if he could hear at the moment. Still, by the way the Wookie was gesturing, Carth could make a guess as to what he meant. "I'm fine." He replied, his voice a lot louder than he anticipated. He tried to lower his voice. "Are you okay?"

The Wookie nodded.

"Good." Carth sighed, leaning against the wall and dropping to a sitting position. "We need to stay alert."

A wayward scream made Carth nearly jump out of his skin. He looked around frantically.

We need to find Connan.

He tried the door. Of course it was locked, but he checked it for any sort of weaknesses. There were none. The vent above them probably could have let them escape, but it was barred and Carth didn't think he could fit through it. It would take some time to get one of those bars out, and it was so far up he'd have to have Chewbacca lift him up while he worked.

This was getting worse and worse.

There was no way out, and Carth had no clue what they were doing with Connan.

Connan who they'd hit again. While she was blinded. Carth was going to kill Boba Fett. With his bare hands.

But first they needed to get out. Carth forced himself to stop thinking about what they might be doing to Connan at the moment and began searching the entire room for a weakness.

The circular room was impenetrable. There was no way they would be able to get out on their own. An hour of searching and all he'd discovered was that cots appeared when he pressed a specific button.

This was getting nowhere. Fast. And Carth's mind kept drifting back to Connan.

Carth wiped at his brow and took a shaky breath.

Chewbacca, who'd been watching Carth work methodically through the room, growled and motioned for Carth to come sit next to him.

"We don't have time to relax, Chewie." Carth snapped. "We have to get out of here."

Chewbacca motioned again, this time growling insistently. Carth sighed and made his way over to the Wookie. Chewbacca grabbed his wrist and yanked him down beside the Wookie. Grunting contentedly, Chewbacca went back to what he was doing.

Chewbacca sat the remains of C-3PO in between Carth and himself and fished out his head. Looking at it thoughtfully, he picked up the droid's torso and reattached the head to the neck.

3PO's eyes flickered orange once. Carth sat up straighter and watched as Chewbacca screwed in the back of his head. C-3PO began to speak, his voice ranging in pitch and speed as Chewbacca continued to calibrate his head carefully.

"I—I'm t-t-t-terribly sorry-y-y-y." C-3PO stuttered. "I d-dndt mn to intr—d-d-d-d—"

C-3PO shut down again and Chewbacca swore. Carth stood and joined the Wookie on the bench in the center of the cell, watching the droid raptly.

Chewie twisted a knob on the droid's neck and he sprang back to life. "No! Secret. Stormtroopers? Here? We're in danger! I must tell the others." He gasped. "Oh, no! I've been shot!"

Carth began digging through the rest of the C-3PO refuse pile for spare parts.

XXXXX

The first thing Connan did when she came to was open her eyes.

Not that it helped. She couldn't see anything, she couldn't hear anything, and based on how cold she was and how hard her head was pounding, she wouldn't be able to feel her way through anywhere. She didn't know where she was, she wasn't too sure how she got there, and she didn't know if she was alone or not.

"I know you're awake, small fry, so you might as well try to sit up."

Okay, so she knew she wasn't alone, and that her hearing was just fine. Connan slowly sat herself up, clutching her head and nearly falling backward again. Luckily, she landed against a wall. She groaned.

"You should stay still." The voice commented. "It's going to take a while for you to get reoriented after a blow to the head like that. We can talk about escape when you're not going to get sick."

In front of her lay a single lamp, illuminating only about half of the room. It seemed movable, and it had been placed next to Connan, so she wasn't sure how big the cell was.

Time to find out.

"What happened?" She asked to darkness.

"I was hoping you could tell me, actually." The voice from before replied. "They chunked you in here about three or four hours ago. I thought you were dead for a little bit; or at least in some sort of a coma. I tried to help you out; I could siphon off a bit of my own healing implants to treat what I could, but I can only do so much. That's a nasty bruise you've got going there."

Bruise? Connan's hand reached down her cheek and she winced as her fingers brushed the extremely sensitive skin there. When had she gotten that? She couldn't—

"Damn it!" She groaned. "That bastard hit me again."

"You're going to have to be clearer than that, small fry."

Connan frowned. That voice sounded oddly familiar. "You first." She challenged. Other information began to crawl back to her: where she was, what she'd been doing, who she was with. "Who are you? How long have you been here? Why did they stick me in here with you? Where are the others?"

Connan heard the sound of shuffling feet, and a man came to stand in the light by Connan. Her eyes widened.

There's no way this is possible.

"What the hell?!"

XXXXX

Vader came to visit Carth and Chewbacca a few hours after they'd been thrown into the cell. He crossed his arms and breathed deeply through his newly fixed mask.

Carth, for his part, stood up from where he'd been sitting across the room. No way was he going to let Vader stare down at him.

"Where's Connan?" Carth barked. "And Han, and Leia? Are they all right?"

"They are all alive, for the time being." Vader replied. He didn't move from his place in the doorway. "You'll have to suffice with that answer for a while."

Chewbacca growled warningly.

"Why are you keeping us here?" Carth asked, pacing around his side of the cell.

"I'm looking for someone." Vader replied. "Connan just happened to be a lucky catch.

"If you mean you and the Wookie specifically," he snarled as he continued. "The Wookie doesn't have the same connection I need, and torturing you would only bring Connan's wrath down faster."

Carth went still. "Torture? Ani, tell me you aren't torturing Connan."

Vader laughed, stepping out of the doorway and through the other side of the cell. "Good-bye, Carth."

Carth lunged at the door. It shut behind Vader before he could get to it.

XXXXX

Before the man could reply to her outburst, Connan leapt and enveloped him in a hug. The man took it in stride, although he did look extremely surprised to have an armful of Jedi. He grunted as she made impact.

"Canderous!" She cried. "I haven't seen you in ages! How are you? How is everyone else? What—" Then Connan smacked a hand against her forehead (wincing as she disturbed her bruise) and stared at the man in front of her. "What are you doing here? You weren't there when we—we—"

Canderous gave her an odd look. "Revan, are you feeling all right? That smack to your head must have done a lot more damage than I thought."

Connan frowned. Revan? "What about the others? Are they here, too?"

"Trust me; I have no idea what you're talking about." The man sat down against the wall roughly and banged his head against the cold metal. He ran a hand through his hair and growled.

"How long have you been here? What happened?"

The Mandalorian sighed, shaking his head and tugging at his black hair absentmindedly. "I don't remember. Something attacked me, and I woke up here. Not two minutes later, I was suddenly surrounded by armed soldiers. I woke up in metal head's ship, and they started interrogating me about things I had no way of answering. When they realized I couldn't give them anything, they threw me in here. I've been in here ever since."

Connan cringed. "I'm sorry." She sat down beside him. "If it makes you feel better, my head feels like it's about to explode."

Canderous snorted. "So how did these guys manage to catch the great Revan? Not even our troops at the Second Battle of Onderon could keep you in one place."

Connan shrugged. "Metal Head and I used to be friends. He caught me off guard and smashed his fist into the side of my head."

"Hah!" Canderous barked out a laugh, shrugging when Connan winced.

"So how are the others?" Connan asked. "Carth and Mission have been here with me for about four years now, and we've had no word—understandably—from anyone else."

"What do you mean understandably?" Canderous asked. "Revan, where are we?"

Connan's eyes narrowed. "We're four thousand years in the future." I've told him this before.

Canderous tensed, staring at Connan like she'd grown another head. "You're serious, aren't you? Four thousand years in the future?" He snorted again. "You never do anything halfway, do you?"

Connan let out a breath. That went over well. At least he hadn't freaked out. Then again, Canderous wasn't the "freak out" type.

"You still haven't answered my question about the others. How is Jolee? Bastila? Donella? Carth and Mission and I have been wondering."

Canderous frowned. "Who?"

XXXXX

Mission fidgeted uselessly in the second seat of their Spearhead. "How much longer until we make it to Bespin?"

"Not long." Luke replied. "Another day or two."

The Twi'Lek sighed, rubbing her temples. "That's too long."

"I know, but we're going as fast as we can." Luke glanced over at her. "We'll get there in time."

He sounded more like he was reassuring himself than Mission.

Mission nodded nonetheless. "Of course we will." She twiddled her thumbs, and for a while they were silent.

"How long has Connan been pregnant?" Luke asked out of the silence.

The question stumped Mission. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

That made Luke snort. "What? Is she overdue or something?"

Mission cocked her head to the side. "Yes and no."

"You're not making any sense."

"Look, I can't explain it without starting from the beginning, and I wasn't here for the beginning. I'll let Connan explain it to you after we bust them out of there. Deal?"

Luke sighed. "I guess so." He flexed his hands on the wheel. "I hope they're all right."

"They'll be fine!" R2-D2 whirred. "But… we should probably hurry. Just in case."

Mission glanced over at him and nudged him. "They're going to be fine. Trust me."

I hope.

XXXXX

I am completely ashamed of myself for leaving this alone for four months. Extreme writer's block hit me when I knew what I wanted to have happen but I couldn't think of how it would work. Then when I figured out how it would work I had to get there from where I was. Hopefully I'm back on track now. I swear I won't be taking another four-month absence again. That nearly killed me.

Sorry for the shortness of the chapter, by the way. If I put everything I wanted to in this chapter it'd be 30+ pages. So no.

But I'm back! I know exactly what I'm going to do next, so don't worry about an update from me next week. It's totally going to be there.

Amme Moto